Welcome back! As we begin a new semester and a new year, I'd like to encourage everyone
to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful achievements that surround us, the great things
that our faculty, staff, students and alumni are accomplishing everyday. So let me share
some of those examples with you, and enjoy.
The dedication of this new Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital means everything to us
and our ability to give back to the community. It's a totally family focused environment.
We're a group of researchers and students working to put a Penn State spacecraft on
the moon. This will be the first private exploration of another body in the solar system.
Our commonwealth campuses have responded to the needs of community, to the needs of the
workforce. Our students have tremendous opportunities before them.
Being a potter and working with clay, I've always been fascinated between this intersection
of life and art, and this idea that the largest work of art we all make are the lives that
we live.
It's been awesome. It wasn't just a team here a team there, to see the entire community
- athletes, staff, students alike - everybody just come together in this One Team.
What Lloyd and Dottie Huck have done for the university and for the life sciences has been
transformative. Research is an essential component not only in attracting the very best faculty,
but making sure that our students can think in a way that puts them head and shoulders
above others.
I think the value of a Penn State education helps individuals make a major contribution
to their work, to their communities, and within their personal lives, and I am humbled each
time I get to see these individuals.
I shall continue to do what it is that Penn State gave me an opportunity to do. I thank
you.
We must do something about this. That feels so great in knowing that today we're going
to start speaking out. We're going to talk about this thing. We can't let this thing
destroy our kids.
We're studying the production of biofuels on marginal land in the north east. I'm at
the forefront of the research, so it's pretty exciting.
Those are just a few reasons why I'm proud to be part of Penn State. Thank you for all
you do for the Penn State community.
